Insight, hindsight and foresight as we segue from Week 10 to Week 12 in NFL action:

OPENING KICKOFF

For starters: perspective on the big news

The sudden dominance of the New Orleans Saints is still the talk of the NFL.

Winners of seven straight, the 7-2 Saints on Sunday more than just pushed around a proud Buffalo Bills team that previously had played tough teams tough. The Saints proved physically overbearing, both on defence and with its run game.

The latter was thanks in large part to running backs Mark Ingram and rookie Alvin Kamara, as dynamic an RB duo as the NFL has right now. Both rushed for more than 100 yards against Buffalo. New Orleans now has the NFL’s third-best rushing offence, averaging 142 yards per game (behind Jacksonville’s 163 and Dallas’ 144).

Even better, Ingram and Kamara are like interchangeable parts, QB Drew Brees said Sunday. Both are powerful, elusive, fast (especially Kamara), have great vision and hit holes hard.

“They’re so versatile,” Brees said. “There’s not an element of this offence that you would say one is better suited than the other. They both can do it all, really. It’s unique to have two guys like that. So regardless of the situation, we can plug and play.

“But what’s fun is to watch one guy have success, then the next guy comes in and has success, and they’re both feeding off each other and competing, and yet at the end of the day they’re such a tight-knit (duo). They both understand they’re going to get their opportunities.”

That kinship was on display afterward in the Saints locker room beneath New Era Field. Ingram and Kamara decided to hold a joint scrum in front of their stalls, alternately taking questions until the scrums halved, like a splitting cell.

“We (have been) committing to the run for a long time, man,” Ingram said.

Of course, if you have two backs each gain a hundred, if at one point in the second half you run it on 24 consecutive plays, and if you had a 94-yard, 10-play TD drive all on the ground, your offensive line played more than a small role.

“We’re a confident group, and when we get on a roll I don’t think there’s any stopping us,” RT Ryan Ramczyk said. “We kept grinding, we kept playing and we didn’t let up. We take a lot of pride in that.”

New Orleans head coach Sean Payton was asked what info he had gathered from watching on the sideline to gauge how his O-line played.

“Well my guess is they did pretty well,” Payton said, practically rolling his eyes. “Three-hundred yards rushing, that was the information I gathered.”

Both Ingram and Kamara profusely thanked their blockers. Are steak dinners in order for the fivesome of LT Terron Armstead, LG Andrus Peat, C Max Unger, RG Larry Warford and Ramczyk? It wouldn’t be the first time.

“We definitely will take care of them,” Kamara said. “They don’t really get a lot of the hurrahs and the glory like the people with the ball, but we appreciate them more than anybody.”

Even though he’s a rookie playing on a rookie’s salary ($465,000) compared to the seventh-year Ingram’s $3.1 million, Kamara said he’d be more than happy to pick up the tab.

“Hey, those are my guys. They take care of me, I’ll take care of them,” the 22-year-old said. “Mark got the bill last time. I got it this time.”

TRENDS NOT COINCIDENCES

It happened again, so it probably will happen again

1. After his now 1-8 New York Giants took another drubbing Sunday, at previous winless San Francisco, head coach Ben McAdoo got skewered more than ever on TV, on the web, on radio and, especially, on the covers of New York’s tabloid newspapers. Monday’s main headlines are as follows. Newsday: “McA-DOOMED.” New York Daily News: “HIT THE ROAD, MAC.” New York Post: “IT CAN’T WAIT.” McAdoo might be a gift to tab headline writers, but not to Giants fans. What a disastrous regime.

2. And the award for worst NFL special teams goes to the Denver Broncos. First-year special-teams coordinator Brock Olivo had a Sunday nightmare to forget, in his team’s 41-16 home-field loss to New England. Already under fire for special-team gaffes in previous games, Olivo’s charges in the first half against the Pats (a) muffed a punt at Denver’s 24 just 3:24 into the game that New England cashed in for the game’s first TD, (b) five minutes later allowed a 103-yard kickoff return TD to Dion Lewis and (c) had a punt blocked early in the second quarter. Late in the game, a special-teams penalty allowed New England to retain possession, which Tom Brady turned into another TD. “You can’t give up 24 points on special teams and expect to win,” Denver safety Justin Simmons said. “It’s unacceptable.” Olivo knows that. Here’s what he said two days before Sunday’s game: “I’ve come up short to this point. I owe it to the franchise, this staff and this team to get that thing rolling.” It ain’t rolling.

3. Tennessee has won four games in a row, Jacksonville three. Both teams at 6-3 are tied atop the AFC South. It’s likely both clubs will make the playoffs and with double-digit wins. They’ve had easy schedules that only get easier. In their final seven games the Jags play only two teams currently sporting a winning record: Seattle (6-3) on Dec. 10, and Tennessee on Dec. 31. Jax’s other foes: Cleveland, Arizona, Indianapolis, Houston and San Francisco. The Titans play three teams with winning records by the time the regular season ends on New Year’s Eve: Pittsburgh (7-2), Los Angeles Rams (7-2) and Jacksonville. The Titans’ other foes: Indianapolis, Houston, Arizona and San Francisco.

HERO

Adrian Clayborn, DE, Falcons

He sacked Dallas QB Dak Prescott six times in Atlanta’s home-field win, one short of the NFL single-game record. Granted, the fact that Cowboys left tackle Tyron Smith didn’t play because of back and groin injuries tremendously aided Clayborn and other Falcons pass rushers, who set a Dallas opponent’s record with eight sacks. But after falling behind 7-0, the Falcons were desperate for some game-changing element. Clayborn provided it. Now Atlanta’s 5-4, still in the playoff hunt.

ZEROES

Coach Hue Jackson and QB DeShone Kizer, Browns

Cleveland is Cleveland because of plays like this. Trailing 17-10 at Detroit with 15 seconds left in the first half, the Browns — with no timeouts left — faced second-and-goal on the Detroit two-yard line. Kizer shockingly tried to sneak up the middle and was stacked up, then sorta piled on, for no gain. Lions defenders took their time untangling. Once freed, Kizer hurriedly tried to rush his team back to the line to spike the ball. Too late. Time ran out. Half over. Who called the QB sneak — Jackson from the sideline, or did Kizer dumbly audible into it? It was the latter, according to numerous reports quoting Browns players. How can a rookie QB in that situation be empowered to do that? Well that’s on Jackson. If he’s going to let the rookie audible into a QB sneak, he must be sure Kizer knows never to do so in such a circumstance. Because when in your life have you seen a QB sneak it in from two yards out against a stacked line?!

STOCK UP

Robert Woods, WR, Rams

A second-round draft pick of the Buffalo Bills in 2013, he looked like a receiver with a ton of pro promise. Instead he was under-utilized by a Bills franchise used to talent-wasting. Woods signed with the Rams as a free agent in the off-season, and has 39 catches for 622 yards and four TDs — after his eight-catch, 171-yard, two-TD day against Houston. With 26 more catches, 78 more receiving yards and two more TD catches Woods would set career single-season bests.

STOCK DOWN

Buffalo Bills defence

After impressive showings earlier in the season against the likes of Carolina, Denver, Atlanta and Oakland, Buffalo’s defenders have fallen apart the past two games, in blowout losses to the New York Jets and Saints. The Bills offence has been nearly as bad, mind you, but it might be a long time before we again see an NFL defence allow a 94-yard drive, all on the ground, in just 10 plays, as New Orleans executed Sunday.

NOW THAT WAS COOL

We hardly see fake punts anymore, so it was nice to see the Jacksonville Jaguars not only execute one successfully on Sunday against the Los Angeles Chargers, but take it to the house. It’s Jacksonville’s second successful fake punt in the past seven games. The first, on Sept. 24 against Baltimore in London, saw up-back Corey Grant take a short, direct snap around right end and down the field for a 50-yard gain. Sunday’s saw Grant take the snap, fake to the right, then burst straight up through a huge hole. He weaved his way between and around Chargers tacklers and scored from 56 yards out.

ACTUAL QUOTE

“It’s just sad. It’s real sad. It’s sad that we went from a championship-calibre team to a team that stinks and nobody respects us.”

— Derek Wolfe, DE, Broncos, to the Denver Post after the Broncos’ 41-16 loss Sunday night to New England dropped them to 3-6.

Jon Ryan of Regina punted eight times in Thursday’s 22-16 defeat of Arizona, and averaged 50 yards per boot. In his 12th NFL year and 14th as a pro, Ryan has landed 20 punts inside the 20 without reaching the end zone; only four punters have more.

FIVE FAST FACTS

1. Tyrod Taylor’s longest pass completion vs. Saints was nine yards.

2. Adam Thielen is on pace to become first Vikings WR this decade with 1,000 yards.

Quarterback George Blanda played 26 seasons of pro football, most in history. He quickly became one of the first stars of the pass-happy AFL (1960-69). He was nearly age 33 when the league debuted, after having played mostly as a backup in the NFL with the Chicago Bears and Baltimore Colts from 1949-58. But from 1960-66 he was as prolific a passer as any in the AFL, with the Houston Oilers. Fifty-six years ago this week he set an AFL record with seven TD passes in a 49-13 defeat of the New York Titans (who’d be renamed the Jets). Blanda led the Oilers to the first two AFL championships. He also doubled as the Oilers’ kicker, something he hadn’t done in the NFL. In 1967, Blanda joined the AFL’s Oakland Raiders, where he both kicked and threw the occasional pass as a backup QB for the next nine seasons, finally retiring a month before the 1976 season at age 48. He died in 2010.

GUARANTEED LOSERS

Two teams that won’t win this week

Kinda the opposite of a suicide pool. I can pick a team only once all season, so each of 32 teams over the NFL schedule’s final 16 weeks. Last week’s picks: Minnesota (which won at Washington) and New Orleans (which blew out Buffalo). Eesh. That’s four wrong in a row — I’m the only guaranteed loser so far this month. But we don’t give up. So … this week’s picks: Tennessee (at Pittsburgh) and New England (‘at’ Oakland in Mexico City).

Season record: 9-9 (.500)

TAKING A KNEE

This week’s winder-upper

Your heart has to break for Marquise Goodwin.

Only hours after his and wife Morgan’s baby son died at birth, the wide receiver with sprinter’s speed raced behind the New York Giants secondary and caught an 83-yard touchdown pass from San Francisco 49ers QB C.J. Beathard.

Even before Goodwin reached the end zone, he pointed skyward. Once in the end zone with the ball, he collapsed to his knees, eventually hanging his head as emotion poured from him. Teammates quickly came to him, to console.

Following San Fran’s first win of the season, Goodwin posted the following message to Instagram, along with a heart-wrenching close-up photo of what appeared to depict Goodwin touching with one finger the tiny hand of his deceased newborn:

“I just wanna thank those who’ve genuinely prayed for (Morgan and) myself through out this pregnancy. Unfortunately we lost our baby boy due to some complications, and had to prematurely deliver him early this morning around 4am. Although we are hurt, I am grateful for the experience and grateful that God blessed me with a wife as courageous and resilient as Morgan. The pain (physically, mentally, & emotionally) that she has endured is unbelievable. Please pray for the Goodwin family.”

Till next week …

QUARTERBACK RANKINGS

My Top 20 active and available QBs, after Sunday games (last week’s rankings in brackets)

1. Tom Brady, NE (1)

2. Drew Brees, NO (2)

3. Alex Smith, KC (3)

4. Ben Roethlisberger, PIT (4)

5. Matthew Stafford, DET (5)

6. Matt Ryan, ATL (6)

7. Dak Prescott, DAL (7)

8. Carson Wentz, PHI (8)

9. Russell Wilson, SEA (9)

10. Cam Newton, CAR (10)

11. Derek Carr, OAK (11)

12. Jared Goff, LAR (12)

13. Kirk Cousins, WSH (13)

14. Phil Rivers, LAC (15)

15. Marcus Mariota, TEN (16)

16. Josh McCown, NYJ (17)

17. Jay Cutler, MIA (20)

18. Eli Manning, NYG (18)

19. Case Keenum, MIN (NR)

20. Jacoby Brissett, IND (NR)

OUT: Jameis Winston, TB (14; injured), Tyrod Taylor (19)

THIS WEEK

Quick thoughts on Week 11 games (all on Sunday unless noted)

— Titans at Steelers, Thursday, 8:25 ET: Pittsburgh ought to win easily. But we say that nearly every week and they struggle.

— Lions at Bears, 1ET: Detroit’s best chance in years to walk away with division title and they’re fortunate to be 5-4. A must win.

— Jaguars at Browns, 1 ET: Browns brain trust already hard at work planning how we all can point and laugh at ’em this week.

This Week's Flyers

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